OC/DC: Supreme Court has spotlight; Congress is out

PBS will be broadcasting the Independence Day celebration program in Washington, with fireworks and the National Symphony Orchestra, on July 4, 5-6:30 p.m. PT.

WASHINGTON – Members of Congress will be home this week as the House and Senate take a recess for the July 4 holiday.

But, the Supreme Court is expected to announce today one of the most anticipated decisions of its current session, on what has become known as the Hobby Lobby case. It’s actually two cases, and they deal with religious freedom and women’s access to contraception.

Here’s a good preview from the Washington Post: “It all starts with the Affordable Care Act. The law stipulates that employers need to provide health care for their employees that covers all forms of contraception at no cost. However, some for-profit corporations have insisted they should not have to pay for all of these services — especially those that conflict with their beliefs.”

“The owners of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties don’t have a problem with offering insurance that covers most forms of birth control, but they aren't willing to cover emergency contraceptives — like Plan B or ella — or IUDs. Hobby Lobby contends its ‘religious beliefs prohibit them from providing health coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices that end human life after conception.’

“The question these cases are seeking to solve is whether for-profit companies have a right to exercise religious freedom under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law passed in 1993 that states the ‘Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.’ If they do, does the government have a compelling interest to override it in this instance?”

In California, friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed by Biola University, a private Christian university in La Mirada, in support of Hobby Lobby, and by Attorney General Kamala Harris, in support of the government’s position.

Two Angelenos feted at White House

Champions of Change: The White House regularly singles out Americans who contribute to their community in a program called “Champions of Change.” Today, two Angelenos will receive the distinction for “doing extraordinary work to facilitate employment opportunities for individuals formerly involved in the justice system,” the White House said.

They are:

• Father Gregory Boyle of Los Angeles, founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the United States, now in its 25th year.

• Scott Budnick of Los Angeles, a film producer whose credits include The Hangover series, for his work on behalf of children in need.

Border visits

Immigration: On another front, some members of Congress are visiting the U.S.-Mexico border this week to better understand the sudden surge of children and families from Central America crossing into Texas and Arizona, and the U.S. response.

The House Judiciary Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over immigration laws, will send a delegation to visit the Rio Grande Valley Sector of the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday and Thursday to tour federal facilities and meet with law enforcement officials, including from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The delegation will be led by the committee’s chairman, Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that the illegal migration of minors will grow from 6,000 last year to an estimated 142,000 in 2015. As of last week, DHS has seen about 50,000 minors attempting to cross into the United States and more than 40,000 family members for fiscal 2014.

National Anthem: If you happen to be celebrating July 4 in Washington, DC this week, here’s one exhibit that rings the bell -- the original handwritten manuscript of the Star Spangled Banner is being shown for what is believed to be the first time with ... the huge star spangled banner that inspired the song’s lyrics. (The flag is currently 30 feet by 34 feet, a bit smaller from deterioration.)

The flag is normally in Washington and the manuscript in Baltimore, whose harbor was the scene of the September 1814 battle where the British Royal Navy bombarded Fort McHenry. Lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics as he watched and nighttime fell. Intrepid Yankee resistance ultimately repelled the attack. The poem was originally called the “Defence of Fort McHenry.” The text was immediately set to a popular melody of the time, “To Anacreon in Heaven.”

Key’s manuscript has two surprises for viewers who know the song, Associated Press reports. First, Key’s poem has four stanzas, though the first stanza is the only one that’s traditionally sung. Second, Key wrote, “Oh say can you see through the dawn’s early light,” but crossed out “through” and wrote “by.”

The exhibit is second floor center, National Museum of American History and is scheduled to end July 6. Here are the four stanzas (note the question mark at the end of the only the first stanza):

“O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

“On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream, ’Tis the star-spangled banner -- O long may it wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

“And where is that band who so vauntingly swore, That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion A home and a Country should leave us no more? Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

“O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation! Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto -- “In God is our trust,” And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

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